Alarm apparatus for hot journal bearings and like hazards



p 4, 1951 A. J. SORENSEN 2,566,968

ALARM APPARATUS FOR HOT JOURNAL BEARINGS AND LIKE HAZARDS Filed May 24, 1945 lnzep upzep 25 Z 15 d r Q Hecez'l/L'n Appapa am 12 BA 1 25 Tpanrmz'zzwy Zl- 33M T Appapazafi 22 TA 22 f? 3"] TE [7 I6 11 2M1 pr I l-- I m 6 o I o o o 7 n k \26 I Thermal TB Contaczir INVENTOR. AndpewJ Sapenren Ms ATTORNEY;

Patented Sept. 4, 1951 JiLABM" APPARATUS FOR HOT JOURNAL -BEARINGS AND LIKE HAZARDS I Andrew J. Sorensen, EdgewoodLPa assignorto The Union Switch & Signal Company, Swissvale, Pa., a corporation'of Pennsylvania Application .May .24, 1945, Serial N0. 595,56'7

, 1 Y My invention relates to railway-train emergency alarm apparatus, and more particularly to apparatus .for: sending out. an emergency alarm through railway train communication equipment. In the operation of railway trains, derailed 'cars, dragging equipmenthot journal bearings and many other circumstances create hazards which may involve all trains in thevicinity of the -hazard. Many timesthese accidental hazards are "first-observed by railway employees at a wayside f station or by a crew member of a train other than of the train to which theaccident has occ'ur'red. Furthermore, ahhazard, such as a rock slide, may be observed by a watchman who is to 2 Claims. (Cl; 246169) trainand at associated wayside stations through receiving apparatus influenced'thereby and is.

. utilized to give a special alarm signal. Prefer-'- ably, the transmitting medium used for train communication, that .is, train telephone com-r munication, would be used for transmission of the alarm current, the alarm current being of a charactenthat it is efiectively transmitted by such a medium. Also, the alarm current is pref-i erably ofa characteristic that it will be picked up by the receiving apparatus of the train communi cation system and will influence this receiving apparatus to give a special alarm. Furthermore,

the alarm current is of a characteristic that it warn all trains'in the vicinity. will, break inywhen the receiving apparatusv is It would .beaf step toward safety if all trains being used for telephone PH 'D N f, "and various wayside stations along the railway I S l describe 6 rm f' pp r us' 9 lfcould: send out an emergenc alarm when a hazme my invention, and shall then point out-the ard occurs, andwhich alarm would be immedinovel features thereof in cl msately received iby all trains in that vicinity but The accompanying drawing is a diagrammatic whichwould not extend much-beyond a predetermined limiteach side of the hazard. In this way all trainsnear the hazard would beput on "the alert; and each crew could take whatever action is necessary to. bring their train under full contro1. In other words, it5is desirable in; train operation to have means whereby an emergency -alar'mset into'operation without delay when given hazards occur, and which alarm would not extend beyond a given'range. i This alarm to be set into action either automaticallythrough de- -vices' actuated by the occurrence of a hazard; or -m'anually by. railway employees observing a i-hazard.

' Accordingly; a feature of my invention isthe provision of novel emergency alarmapparatus f'oruse in the operation of railway trains.

Another feature Ofmy'inVentionis-the provislon of novel emergencyalarm-apparatus for use #w'ith I railway train communicationequipment.

view showing one form of apparatus embodying my invention when used with a train telephone communication system of the -.carrier inductive type.. .It is tov lie-understood,- however, that my invention is not; limited to this one application but this application of the apparatus discloses the principle of the invention and illustrates the .1 many places where theiapparatus is useful;

Referring to the drawing, the referenced-raracter LO designates a locomotive adapted to" travel on a railway track, the rails of whichfare indicated at TR. Locomotive L0 is shownyasra steam locomotive, having a tender TE, butlother types of motive power may be used. In fact it is to' be understood that apparatus embodying the invention is not limited tousej on locomotives and Other features, objects and advantages of my "invention will" appear as the specification-pro- "apparatus being capable of being set into operation either automatically or manua11y.' This 'To' attain the foregoing features, obiectsand it can he applied to other railway vehicles.

apparatus can be located at wayside stations;

Also.

as will be more fully explained hereinaftf the The locomotive L0 is provided withtraintelephone communication equipment which-may be, for example, of the carrier inductive type, 'such as is covered. by Letters Patent of the United States No. 2,064,639, granted, December .15; 1936, to L. D. Whitelock et al., for Communicating Systems, or by an application for Letters Patent of the United States, Serial No. 575,311; filed January 30, 1945, by P. N. Bossart, for Railway Train Communication Systems, now Patent No.

2,484,680, granted October 11, 1949, and to' which patents reference is made fora full understanding of such train telephone. communication equipment. 7 i

It is sufiicient for the present application to point out that the communication equipment 'a-larm'current is of a predetermined characteris- --"'tic and is of a nature that itis efiectivelytransmitted along the railway through; a transmitting medium common to all trains, but which medium y'limitsthe transmission in each direction frorn the ":hazardw This'alarm current ispicked up-oneach comprises transmitting apparatus and receiving apparatus which are shown in the drawing conventionally at TA and RA, respectively. The transmitting apparatus TA includes a microphone, an electron tube oscillator, a modulator and an amplifier, and is capable of supplying to a primary winding 4 of an output transformer TI a carrier telephone current, the carrier being of a preselected frequency which is modulated by a preselected band of voice frequencies. For example, in the aforementioned Whitelock et a1. patent, it is assumed for illustration that a carrier of 7000 cycles per second is amplitude modulated by a band of voice frequencies extending, say, from 400 to 2400 cycles. In the aforementioned Bossart application, it is assumed for illustration that a carrier of either of the frequencies of fl or I2 is frequency modulated by a preselected band of voice frequencies. The output transformer TI is electrically coupled to a transmitting circuit which serves as a medium for transmitting the current along the railway track, and which circuit includes in the well known manner, the track rails and paralleling conductors, such as line wires strung on a pole line. As shown in the drawing, secondary winding 5 of output transformer TI is connected to a sending loop circuit coupled to the transmitting circuit by being connected to the track rails, the connection including two spaced pairs of wheels of the locomotive LO. These spaced pairs of wheels may be any of the wheels of the locomotive, and the rear pair of wheels 6 and the forward pair of wheels I of the tender TE are used. It is clear, therefore, that the transmitting apparatus TA when energized is operable to supply to the transmitting circuit a carrier telephone current, 'which is available at any point along the railway within a given range for reception by proper receiving apparatus such as the receiving apparatus RA when such receiving apparatus is coupled to the transmitting circuit.

The receiving apparatus RA of locomotive LO includes amplifying and demodulating means and a loud-speaker, arranged to demodulate the carrier telephone current and cause the voice frequencies to be sounded in the loud-speaker. The receiving apparatus RA is coupled to the transmitting circuit through a pick-up coil 8 mounted preferably on the top of the rear of the tender TE in a position to be in inductive relation to the rails and conductors paralleling the rails. Preferably the receiving apparatus RA is normally conditioned for reception, and the transmitting apparatus TA is normally deenergized and is energized and made active only during periods of sending. It follows that the crew of the locomotive LO can telephone to other vehicles of the same train, to other trains and to wayside stations when such remote stations are equipped with apparatus similar to transmitting apparatus TA and receiving apparatus RA, the transmitting circuit which includes the track rails and paralleling conductor serving as a transmitting medium common to call such trains and stations. The range of effective transmission is limited by the proportion of the parts and the parts can be proportioned for effective communication for a range of one to five miles.

In addition to this telephone communication equipment, I provide the locomotiveLOwithnovel means for creating an emergency alarm current and for supplying such alarm current to the transmitting circuit. The supply means for this emergency alarm current includes a battery 9, a converter and a transmitting coil. The converter 4 comprises an interrupter I0 and a tansformer T2 with tuned circuits. The interrupter I0 may be of any one of several types, and preferably it is of the tuned alternator of coder relay type having an energizing winding I2 and a vibrating member I3. An energizing circuit for the interrupter can be traced from battery 9 through winding I2, vibrating contact member I3, 2. contact I4, a push button key Kl and normally open contacts I5, I6, I1 and I8 in multiple to the other terminal of the battery 9. The normally open contacts l5, I6 and I! are controlled in a manner to be explained hereinafter, and the normally open contact I8 is preferably that of the spring return type push button. It is clear that the contact member I3 is normally inactive, but is set into vibration by the energizing of the operating winding I2 due to the closing of any one of the contacts I5, I6, I! or I8 and when thus putinto operation the contact member I3 is vibrated at a frequency predetermined by the proportioning of the parts. Also, operation of the interrupter can be discontinued through key KI when one or the other contacts I5, I6, I! or I8 is closed. 7

Contact member I3 when vibrated periodically closes contacts I!) and 20 to complete a circuit through which current is supplied from battery 9 to primary winding 2I of transformer T2, as will be readily understood by an inspection of the drawing. Such impulses of current supplied to primary winding 2I induce a corresponding electromotive force in secondary winding 22, which is connected to a transmitting coil II. Preferably a capacitor 23 is connected in multiple with winding 2I and a capacitor 24 is interposed in series in the connection of winding 22 and coil I I for the purpose of tuning these circuits. This converter has the characteristic of a spark gap and the electromotive force thus created in secondary winding 22 of the transformer T2 has a complex wave containing a relatively wide band of frequencies extending from the low frequency at which the circuit is being interrupted up to one megacycle per second and even higher. This emergency alarm current will contain frequency components of the order to which the receiving apparatus RA responds and will cause a noisev to appear in the loud-speaker every time the contacts of the interrupter are operated.

The transmitting coil II is mounted on the locomotive to be relatively close to the'track rails and in inductive relation thereto. Thus an electromotive force corresponding to the emergency alarm current is transferred from coil II to the transmitting circuit of the telephone system and becomes available for influencing the receiving coil 8 and all the receiving apparatuses within the range of the equipment.

The electromotive force picked up by receivin coil 8 will have frequencies corresponding to those of the emergency alarm current with the result a corresponding noise will be sounded in the associated loud-speaker and which noise will be of a distinctive characteristic and will be understood as an alarm signal. Furthermore, this alarm current with its band of frequencies willv constitute noise energy during telephone communication and the noise will be sounded during each pause in the conversation and in this manner it will be an effective breakin on the telephone conversation to inform the train crew that an emergency condition exists.

Although the above description refers to am- Plitude modulated signals only, the equipment can without any major modification be adapted for use with frequency modulation equipment ascommunication energy, and'it will therefore be easy for the operator todetect such emergency signals when transmitted due to an emergency condition.

e The contacts l5, I6 and 'i'! are thermalcontacts 7 such as are resumed adjacent-the journal b'ear- ,ings of train wheels todetecthot journal bearings'. The contacts l5, I6 and ii are'shown mounted adjacent the journal bearings of the pairs of wheels 26,25 and 'E,',respectiv'ely, of the tender'TE, "The arrangementis such "that each thermal cont'act'is normally 'open and b'ecomes closed when'the respective journal b'eai'i'ngbecomes abnormally hot indicating what is normally called a hot box" The closing of any one of the thermal contacts IS, IE or [1 automatically causes the converter means to be set into operation to send out the emergency alarm current which will be picked up by the receiving apparatus of the locomotive and by other vehicles of the same train and by vehicles of nearby trains and wayside stations. This alarm calls each crews attention that a hazard exists the hazard in this case being a hot box on the 1000- motive LO. Such emergency alarm would call for each crew to be on the alert and find out the nature of the hazard. The locomotive crew can check if the hazard is on their train by operating key Kl. If the alarm ceases when key Ki is operated the hazard is on their train, but if the alarm continues with the key Kl open the hazard is elsewhere. Each crew should remain alert in either case because a hot box may cause a broken axle and the train thus wrecked may foul other tracks.

It is obvious that thermal contacts similar to contacts l5, l6 and I! can be mounted on each of the other wheels of the locomotive and such additional contacts connected in multiple with the contacts l5, l6 and I1 for controllin the emergency alarm current supply means. Furthermore, such thermal contact can be mounted on each wheel of the train and used to control the emergency current supply means on the locomotive through wires extending throughout the train. Such an arrangement would probably be the preferred form for the modern type of streamline trains. Also, each car on the train can be equipped with thermal contacts and provided with a converter means similar to that shown for the locomotive L and connected to an inductor mounted on the car in inductive relation with the rails. With such an arrangement each car is a unit and the occurence of a hot box on any car of the train would cause the emergency alarm 60 current to be supplied to the transmitting circuit to be picked up by the receiving apparatus of the locomotive and any other equipped vehicle of the train, and by other nearby trains.

It is obvious that normally open contacts of the 65 pressure actuating type can be mounted on the locomotive and connected to the train brake pipe to be actuated in response to a heavy brake pipe reduction, such as is caused by an emergency brake application and these contacts can be used to control the sending of the emergency alarm current so that an emergency alarm current is sent out whenever an emergency application is made and can serve as a warning to other trains in the vicinity of the train on which a condition sense 6 fhas arisen that c-ails for arremerg'gency brakeap "plication. Again; wayside -stations fcan be equipped with emergencyflcurrent supply means "and a "contactsimilarto contact I 5-, 6; or 'l I a-r 5 "ranged'to*beactuated: by a rock slide? high water,

" burning bridgea'nd similar-detectors; and when thus used: an emergency-alarm current" can --be "sent out warningi all trains withinj the 'vicinity "iv su haha s "{Tlirougn-the j'use of the push-' button-*PB the crew" "of the -'loc"omo'tive' LO- can 'mmediately yjcause 'thejsendmg -of t-he' emergency alarm current inthe-event they observe a -hazardousc ridi- 'tion" either "of their own train" or of anynearby train; Similarly,' wayside stations equipped-with 'su'ch emergency -a1arm- -eurr 'pp m an can befsiippliedwith I ai -manually operable push 'button' through" which any i operator may cause the sending of the emergency current when a hazard is observed.

It is to be seen therefore that in the drawing there is disclosed means through which an emergency alarm current can be sent out from any vehicle of a train or from any wayside station, and such current transmitted along the railway through a transmitting medium common to all trains and preselected stations for actuating receiving apparatus on the different trains and at the different wayside stations for sounding a special emergency alarm in the event a hazardous condition arises.

Although I have herein shown and described but one form of railway train emergency alarm apparatus embodying my invention, it i understood that various changes and modifications mounted for receiving current from the track rails, a train carried source of current, a train carried converter means including a tuned circuit and an interrupter, said converter means operable when energized to create an emergency alarm current having a frequency band overlapping the frequency band of said carrier telephone current for sounding in the loud-speaker of said receiving apparatus an emergency alarm, an energizing circuit including a normally open contact mounted on a given vehicle of said train to connect said interrupter to said current source, said contact thermally associated with a given journal bearing of said vehicle to close the contact when the journal bearing become abnormally hot, and an inductor to couple said tuned circuit to the track rails.

2. In an emergency alarm means for use with railway train telephone communication equipment including transmitting apparatus and receiving apparatus which use a carrier telephone current for two-Way communication between a station on a vvehicle of a train and remote stations through a transmitting circuit common to all points along the railway and each of which operable when energized to create an emergency receiving apparatuses is in a normally active condition, the combination comprising, a current source, converter means including a contact interrupter on said vehicle, said converter means alarm current having a frequency band that includes the band of said telephone current, a coupling element to electrically couple said converter means to said transmitting circuit to infiuence the receiving apparatus of said vehicle and said remote stations to sound an alarm corresponding to said emergency alarm current, a contact on said vehicle operatively associated with an element of the vehicle, saidcontact normally open and operated to a'closed position m Number in response to a given operating condition of said vehicle element, circuit means including said contact to connect said converter means to said current ource to energize the converter means,

I and manually operable means interposed in said 15 circuit means to deenergize the converter means to checkif the emergency alarm sounded on the vehicle is due to said condition of the vehicle element or is due toa condition at some remote station.

""ANDREW J. SORENSEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date 1,677,816 Daya July 17, 1928 2,064,639 Whitelock et a1 Dec. 15, 1936 2,089,824 Bossart Aug. 10, 1937 2,090,088 Whiteloek Aug. 1'7, 1937 2,297,172 Sorensen Sept. 29, 1942 2,408,660 Lannge Oct. 1, 1946 2,420,968 Newell May 20, 1947 2,456,871 Goondahl Dec. 21, 1948 

